20 x 3 (13 page)

Successful fat loss involves a lifestyle change,
not
short-term starvation. The components of healthy living – healthy eating, exercise, a reasonable amount of stress and quality sleep – all interact to influence our body composition and health. The Mediterranean eating plan is ideal for individuals living in the Western industrialised world, as it requires minimal preparation and does not involve counting calories. Combined with exercise and stress-management, it provides the basis for a healthy lifestyle.

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This chapter has emphasised what we should be eating. The ideal way to eat for optimum health includes:

• avoiding processed foods with added sugar;
  
• consuming those saturated fats that are good for health (coconut, avocado), while eliminating those saturated fats that are bad for health;
  
• consuming those polyunsaturated and monounsaturated oils that are good for health (olive oil, fish oil), while elimintaing those polyunsaturated fats, such as vegetable oils, that are bad for health;
  
• eating plants full of fibre (apples, coconut, strawberries);
  
• reducing or eliminating animal protein, as too much is bad for health, and replacing it with beneficial plant proteins; and
  
• following the Mediterranean eating plan, as it is the only diet that that has documented beneficial clinical outcomes.
  

The right kind of exercise, combined with a healthy, nutritious eating program, is a step in the right direction to losing belly fat and keeping it off. But these are not the only factors that lead to fat gain. Our busy modern lives mean we are more stressed and sleeping less, both factors that encourage our bodies to put on dangerous belly fat. Chapter 5 looks at ways of managing your levels of stress and how to get enough sleep to gain the full benefit from your 20x3 belly-fat reduction program.

What is stress?

Stress is a process that happens when people respond to environmental and psychological stressors that generate challenge or danger. Stress stimulates the ‘fight or flight’ centres in the brain, which brings about the release of stress hormones such as catecholamines and cortisol. The catecholamines called epinephrine and norepinephrine increase our breathing rate to provide more oxygen to muscles, elevate heart rate and blood pressure and mobilise fat into the blood for extra energy. Muscles also can become tense, and a decrease in saliva flow and increase in sweat production can be experienced. Cortisol, another stress hormone, helps store fat and releases sugar into the blood. The stress response is not always generated by the situation alone – the anticipation of a potential stressor can also have a significant impact on how stress affects an individual. A small amount of stress can add interest to daily life and can help us adapt to change, but too much stress has been shown to cause a range of health problems and an increase in belly fat.

Types of stressors include cataclysmic, personal and daily. A cataclysmic stressor occurs infrequently but is typically life-changing. For example, civil wars, tornadoes and tsunamis cause great disruption to people’s lives and can typically bring about a significant stress response. Personal stressors are usually infrequent but can be equally stressful; the death of a loved one or undergoing a divorce has been shown to generate a significant stress response. Daily stressors involve the frustrations that many of us experience, such as commuting in busy traffic, working with people perceived to be incompetent, having too much work to complete in too little time and so forth. These stressors can occur frequently throughout the day and have the ability to constantly generate a stress response, which can lead to a number of health problems, such as increased incidence of heart attacks, gastrointestinal problems, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, cancer, tuberculosis, insomnia, pneumonia, influenza and headaches.

The effect of stress on belly fat

The major stress hormone that affects belly fat is cortisol; high levels of cortisol in the blood lead to increased deposits of belly fat. Enhanced blood cortisol levels make the liver release sugar into the blood, bringing about an increase in blood insulin levels. Constant high levels of cortisol and insulin in the blood encourage fat accumulation and an increase in belly fat, so individuals exposed to stressors may increase their belly fat stores due to their elevated cortisol and insulin levels.

There is a link between stress, cortisol and appetite, as studies have shown that injecting people with cortisol caused increased appetite and sugar ingestion. Young women who secreted more cortisol during stress also consumed more sugar and fat afterwards. Cortisol may influence appetite by binding to receptors in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that controls appetite. This can cause people to consume more junk foods, which contain large amounts of fat and sugar. Cortisol also regulates other chemicals that control appetite. For example, stress hormones such as corticotropin-releasinghormone and neuropeptide Y have been shown to stimulate appetite. Exposure to stressors also elevates inflammation levels, which have been implicated in the development of obesity.

How to cope with stress

There are a number of ways to cope with stress, including taking direct action against and seeking information about the stressor, inhibiting stressful actions and employing general stress-management habits. For example, if a person’s job is their main source of stress, then the best solution would be to find another job. Unfortunately, for most people this is not practical, so they have to find a way of coping with the stress generated by their jobs. If driving in morning traffic is stressful, then a way to cope might be to get information about traffic flow during different times of the day, to provide options for decreasing the stressful effects of traffic.

Another coping mechanism is to stop fighting the stressor and accept it – this is called inhibiting the stressor. It does not get rid of the stressors but saves the energy and effort required for coping with them. For example, rather than getting angry and upset every time you get involved in morning traffic, you could accept that city roads will always be busy and play music rather than get upset.

Finally, if a stressor cannot be removed or inhibited, then stress-management offers a number of strategies and techniques to reduce or stop the deleterious effects of exposure to daily stressors. Read on and learn how to use stress-management skills such as controlled breathing, muscle relaxation and imagery to avoid becoming agitated.

Stress-management

Stress-management typically involves managing stressors where possible, modifying appraisal of stressful situations, developing stress resistance resources, controlling stress reactions, controlled breathing, muscle relaxation and imagery. More information on these strategies can be found in
Minding the Body, Mending the Mind
by Joan Borysenko.
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From a belly fat perspective, the most important strategies include the use of exercise and the development of controlled breathing, muscle relaxation, imagery and time-management skills to cope with stress.

Controlled breathing

Controlled breathing is a stress-management technique that concentrates on slowing and optimising your breathing. Rapid breathing quickly produces a number of negative physiological responses, such as an elevated heart rate and disrupted cardiac autonomic activity.

A warm, darkened, carpeted room is recommended when learning how to control your breathing and muscle tension. You should lie on your back with your arms by your side; you can lie on the floor or a firm bed. Make sure your clothing is not tight or uncomfortable. Finally, make sure you do not have any injuries that cause discomfort when lying in this position. Now follow the steps listed below.

1. Focus your thoughts on your breathing.
   
2. Slow your breathing and take deep, even breaths. Focus all your thoughts on the air as it enters your nasal passage and progresses deep into your lungs. If extraneous thoughts enter your mind, push them aside and refocus all your attention on your breathing.
   
3. Now concentrate on your breathing cue word: RELAX. As you say the word in your mind, breathe in on the
   RE
   and out on the
   LAX
   . One cycle should take about 5 seconds – 2.5 seconds breathing in, and 2.5 seconds breathing out – which equates to 12 breathing cycles per minute. Practise using this cue for 3 breathing cycles. Remember, slowly breathe in on the
   RE
   and slowly breathe out on the
   LAX
   .
   
4. If thoughts enter your mind or noises come to your attention, push them aside and refocus all your concentration on your breathing.
   
5. As you prastice the muscle relaxation technique in the next section, try to monitor and control your breathing throughout the session using your cue word, RELAX.
   

Muscle relaxation

Muscle relaxation is a technique that systematically releases all the tension in your skeletal muscles. As with the controlled breathing technique, you should lie on your back with arms by your side in a warm, darkened room. Try to wear comfortable, non-restrictive clothing. Follow the instructions below to learn how muscle relaxation is performed for the whole body.

1. Lie on your back on a carpeted floor or on a firm bed. Support your head with a small cushion. Allow your legs and arms to stretch out. If you suffer from lower-back problems, place a rolled-up blanket under the backs of your knees.
   
2. To begin, complete a body tension check by monitoring all your muscle groups for excessive muscle tension. Close your eyes and scan the muscles in your body from your head to your feet. Try to assess which of your muscles are tense. Don’t forget about your breathing; it should be slow and even.
   
3. Now start muscle relaxation: tense your fist by curling your fingers as tight as you can for 15 seconds. Hold the tension and focus on it, then release by relaxing your hands and letting your fingers slowly uncurl. Notice the warm, tingling feeling of relaxed muscles, compared to the earlier feeling of tension.
   
4. Next, focus on your biceps. Create tension in these muscles for 15 seconds by lifting both hands to the shoulders and tightening the biceps. Try to keep your hands relaxed. Now release the tension in your biceps by relaxing them and letting your arms slowly return to your side.
   
5. Now tense your neck muscles by contracting and pushing the back of your neck into the pillow for 15 seconds. Hold the tension, focus on it, then release it by relaxing your neck.
   
6. Tense your facial muscles by frowning and gritting your teeth for 15 seconds. Hold the tension, focus on it, then release it by relaxing.
   
7. Now contract you abdominal muscles by tensing and pulling your stomach towards your spine for 15 seconds. Hold the tension, focus on it, then release it by relaxing.
   
8. Next continue with your thighs and buttocks. Tense these muscles tightly for 15 seconds, then release the tension.
   
9. Don’t forget your breathing. Focus on your breathing by using your cue word, RELAX. Take a deep breath on the
   RE
   , hold your breath, then release it on the
   LAX
   .
   
10. Finish by tensing your lower legs. Keep your eyes closed and contract your feet and lower legs by pushing them into the carpet or bed. Hold the tension for 15 seconds, then relax. By now you should feel your body getting warm and heavy.
    
11. Once you have completed the exercise, remain lying down for a while. You may go to sleep, so if you have other things to do, set an alarm clock before you begin.
    

Imagery relaxation

Much stress is caused by thinking about negative situations, so for some people relaxing muscles may not be enough and they must also relax their minds by blocking stressful thoughts and trying to stop worrying. Relaxation imagery involves imagining a relaxing scene by using sight, sound, smell and touch, which distracts a stressed person from worrying.

Choose a relaxing image that you most associate with calmness, peace, tranquility, serenity and harmony. It may be a real-life scenario, such as walking through countryside, or a fantasy image, such as drifting along with the clouds in the sky. Try to involve all your senses in your image, so think about what you can see, hear, touch and smell. The 2 practice images described in the instructions below involve clouds and a warm house in winter. Try these images and then develop your own.

When practising relaxation imagery, a warm, darkened, carpeted room is recommended. You should lie on your back with your arms by your side. Make sure your clothing is not tight or uncomfortable. Also make sure you do not have any injuries that cause you discomfort when lying in this position.

Now create the flowing scene in your mind. You are on a warm, white beach. You are the only one on the beach and the water is calm and green, and the sky is a vivid blue. Focus on the sky. In your mind’s eye, you see nothing but blue. Now focus on the green and turquoise colours of the sea. Focus on the smell of the ocean, let the fresh smell of the sea flood your mind. You can feel a gentle sea breeze blowing against your face. Next, focus on the sky, where you can see a small white cloud slowly descending to the beach. The cloud becomes larger until it finally settles under you. You are lying on top of this small cloud. The cloud lifts you into the air and you see the beach becoming smaller and smaller. Your body is becoming lighter and lighter. You are feeling warm, secure and relaxed.

Now the cloud descends, and your body is feeling more relaxed. As the cloud touches the beach, you are feeling warm, heavy and relaxed. Focus on your breathing. Use your cue word for 2 breathing cycles: RELAX. At the end of the second cycle, open your eyes. You should feel energised and ready for action.

Alternatively, picture a warm house in the middle of winter. Keeping your eyes closed, think about the house – is it a country house or a town house? Is it modern or old? What sort of plants are in the house? Can you hear the cold wind outside? Can you feel the warmth inside the house? Perhaps you can smell the aroma of your favourite food drifting from the kitchen. Move through each room of the house, concentrating on what you can see, hear, smell and feel before going on to the next image. Once you have spent a short time exploring, you should know your house so well that you could describe it to someone else.

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Note that when you use relaxation imagery techniques, it is not the same as visualising with your eyes open. When visualising with your eyes open, you get a sharp, focused picture that remains steady. In contrast, mental images tend to be more fluid – more like ideas of what something looks like rather than a reproduction of reality.

Relaxation on the go

If stress symptoms occur in the workplace, then following some of the strategies below may help you manage your daily work stressors. Once you have finished a session of work, take a 5-minute break where you can: